Selector hopper



Nov. 27, 1962 H. E. sTovER SELECTOR HoPPER Filed Jan. 5, 1961 United States Patent Ofice 3,@554i Patented Nov. 27, i952 3,065,841 SELECIR HPPER Harry IE. Stover, Lancaster, hio, assigner to Anchor Iiloclking Glass Corporation, Lancaster, Ohio, a corporation of Delaware Filed Ian. 5, 1961, Ser. No. 80,863 8 Ciairns. (Cl. 19e-30) The present invention relates to a selector hopper for closure caps and more particularly to an improved selector hopper which will feed closure caps to a sealing mechanism.

In supplying closure caps to a sealing mechanism which applies the caps to a container, it is important that the closure caps be presented to the sealing mechanism in the proper position and at a substantially uniform rate. If the closure caps are not in the proper position when delivered to the sealing means, the sealing mechanism o1' the container being sealed could be damaged. Hence, the selector hopper which feeds the closure caps to the sealing machine must be so designed as to feed closure caps only in their proper positions.

In selector hoppers presently in use, the closure caps are carried upwardly along the periphery of a rotating disc by a plurality of permanent magnets mounted therearound. It has been found that if the metal closure caps are in contact with each other in an end-to-end relationship, the magnetic attraction sometimes flows through the closure caps and retards the delivery of the caps to the sealing mechanism.

It has also been found that closure caps sometimes jamup on the rotating disc of selector hoppers presently in use and cause damage to the hoppers or the caps. In addition, selector hoppers presently in use can be changed to accommodate closure caps of different sizes only by time consuming dismantling of the machine.

Furthermore, in such magnetically driven feed hoppers, irregular pressure produced in the line of closures being discharged results in erratic cap feeding and, sometimes, in failure of the feed.

In addition, in such prior feed hoppers, it was difficult to remove caps which were nested on top of each other.

The present invention overcomes these defects and has for one of its objects the provision of an improved selector hopper which will feed only properly positioned caps to a sealing mechanism.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved selector hopper which will invert improperly positioned closure caps.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved selector hopper which can easily be adjusted to accommodate closure caps of various sizes.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved selector hopper which will prevent magnetic attraction from retarding the closure caps being fed to a sealing mechanism.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved selector hopper which will prevent jam-up of the closure caps being fed to the sealing mechanism.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved selector hopper which allows a by-pass path from the power source back into the hopper to prevent pressure against the caps being fed.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved selector hopper which will automatically scrape-off closure caps which are nested on top of each other.

Other and further objects of the invention will be obvious upon an understanding of the illustrative embodiment about to be described or will be indicated in the appended claims, and various advantages not referred to herein will occur to one skilled in the art upon employment of the invention in practice.

A preferred embodiment of the invention has been chosen for purposes of illustration and description and is shown in the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the specification, wherein:

FiG. 1 is an elevational View showing the improved selector hopper embodying the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional veiw taken along line 2-2 of FIG. 1 showing one of the rejection mechanisms used;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line 3 3 of FIG. 1 showing a safety mechanism which will stop the flow of closures if one of the caps is improperly positioned;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the upper closure of a nest of closure caps being scraped-off by a scraping mechanism; and

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic side sectional view showing the operation of the safety mechanism shown in FIG. 3.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, the closure cap 1 which may be used with the present invention is shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 and is generally comprised of a cover portion 2 and a depending skirt portion 3.

The closure caps 1 are deposited in a selector hopper, generally designated by the reference character 4, by an elevated feed bin (not shown) which will feed closure caps to the hopper 4 as the supply of closures in the hopper 4 is exhausted, thus effecting a constant controlled speed of feeding the closures to the hopper. Such an elevated bin is shown and described in my copending United States patent application Serial No. 52,392, filed August 29, 1960.

The hopper 4 comprises a side Wall 15 within which is positioned a rotating disc 5 having a plurality of permanent magnets 6 around its periphery. The magnets 6 `attract the metal of the closure caps 1 to hold `them on th,x periphery and -to move them upwardly -to a selecting mechanism, generally designated as 7, which rejects improperly positioned closure caps and which feeds properly positioned caps to a sealing mechanism (not shown) by a delivery chute 8. The rotating disc 5 delivers the closure caps 1 -to the -selector mechanism '7 through a pair of guide rails 9 and 1t).

An outside guide wall 13 is permanently mounted on a block 14 a'ixed to the side wall 15 to direct the closure caps to the guide rails 9 and It). A scraper blade 11 is pivotally mounted at 12 to the side wall 15 of the Selector hopper 4 and is adapted to scrape-off Ithe top closu-re cap of a nest of closure caps, as shown in FIG. 4. The scraper blade 11 is provided with a locking arm 16 eX- tending therefrom having a plurali-ty of openings 17 therein adapted to receive la pin or bolt 18 which enters into an opening (not shown) between the arm 16 in the block 19 on the side wall 15 to lock the arm 15 in place and hence hold the scraper blade 11 in its proper position.

As shown in FIG. 4, when a cap ll which is approaching the scraper blade 11 has 'a closure 1a resting on top of it the scraper blade 11 will scrape the closure 1a off the closure 1 and allow only closure 1 to be fed `to the selecting mechanism 7. The scraper blade 11 is arcuate in configuration so as to lead nested caps gradually across and ou-t of the magnetic field to cause minimum interference with caps being fed.

The selector mechanism 7 is also adjusted to receive closure caps of varying sizes. The adjustable guide rail it? is provided with a pair of flanges 20 and 21 having a plurality of openings 22 and 23, respectively, adapted 4to receive pins 24 and 25 which are inserta-ble in cooperating openings (not shown) therebeneath to lock the guide rails 1i) in place. When it is desired to adjust the guide rail 10 -to accommodate closure caps of various sizes, pins 24 and 25 are removed, the rail 10 is adjusted so that the proper openings 22 and 23 overlie the cooperatingy openings (not shown) in the frame, and the-reafter, the pins 24 and 25 are inserted to lock the guide rail in place.

The end of the adjustable guide rail 10 is provided with a roller which eases the closure caps to the selector mechanism 7. However, it has been found that a closure cap will occasionally strike the rollers Sti of the adjustable rail 10 and cause a jam-up of caps. It has also been found that sometimes the rotating disc 5 feeds caps to the selector mechanism 7 faster than the caps are delivered to the sealing mechanism so that there is a backup of caps between guide rails 9 and 10. In order to relieve the pressure due to a cap jam-up or back-up, a detlecting block 31 is mounted on the side wall 15 of the selector hopper 4 to deflect closure caps -moving thereby away from the attraction of the magnets 6. All caps are deflected by the block 31 to relieve the pressure on the caps in the delivery chute. If there is no jam-up or backup of caps, the attraction of the magnets 6 will cause the caps to be pulled back along the periphery. However, if there is a jam-up or back-up of caps, the cap will fall back into the hopper.

It has also been found that if the closure caps are fed in a continuous line and are in contact with each other, the magnetic attraction of the magnets 6 is carried -through the metal of the closure caps and to sometimes retard the downward movement of the closure caps by gravity. In `order to prevent this, a non-magnetic separator star wheel 35 is provided which separates the closure caps and breaks any connection between the selector hopper and the line of caps being moved to the sealing machine and hence prevents the magnetic attraction from retarding the movement of the closure caps.

In order to reject closure caps which are improperly positioned, an idler selector pin wheel 36 is mounted in the -selector mechanism 7 on a horizontal axis 37 in lthe path of the moving caps as shown in FIG. 2. The idler selector pin wheel 36 is provided with a plurality of prongs 38 extending therefrom. If a closure cap which passes is in its proper position, that is, with its cover portion 2 facing upwardly, the skirt 3 of the closure cap will lit .between the prongs 38 of the wheel 36 and the closure cap will :be car-ried into the selector mechanism 7 undisturbed. However, if the cap is improperly positioned, that is, with its cover portion 2 facing downwardly, the prongs 38 of the pin wheel 36 will abut against the cover portion of the cap `to raise the cap and place the rejected cap into a suitable twister or inverter 39.

The twister 39 is mounted on the adjustable guide rail 10 and is adapted to invert each cap from its improper position to its proper position and to return each cap to the rotating disc in its proper position. The caps are deposited by twister 39 on the periphery of the disc S so that once a cap has been inverted by the twister 39 the cap is in its proper position when it is again presented to the selector mechanism.

In order to prevent any improperly positioned closure caps which for some reason tare not rejected by the selector pin wheel 36 from being fed to the sealing mechanism, a safety pin wheel 4t), shown in detail in FIGS. 3 and 5 is provided in advance of the delivery chute 8. The safety pin wheel itl has a plurality of prongs 4l extending therefrom and is located below an upper plate 42. This safety pin wheel 40 operates in a manner shown in FIG. 5. If a closure cap is properly positioned with its cover portion facing upwardly, the skirt portion will ride between the prongs 41 in the wheel 4t) and be moved along. However, if the cap is improperly positioned, with its cover portion facing downwardly as shown in FIG. 5, the closure cap will be lifted .by the prongs 4I and will be wedged beneath upper plate 42 to stop the ow of closure caps and alert the operator `to lan improper selecting operation.

If the delivery chute S becomes filled with caps and an 4 excess of caps is delivered by the rotating disc 5 a bypass opening 8a formed between the tip of twister 39 and angle end 8b at the top of the delivery chute 8 allows excess caps to `be directed back onto the disc 5 to prevent excess pressure in chute 8 and provide a regular flow of caps without pressure.

In operation closure caps are deposited into the rotating disc 5 by a continuous feed elevated bin (not shown) and the magnets 6 along the periphery thereof attract the closure caps and move them upwardly to the selector mechanism 7. The adjustable scraper blade 11 will scrape-off any closure caps which are nested on top of the caps being fed.

In their upward travel to the selector mechanism 7 f closure caps I are moved past the deflecting block 31 which deflects the caps outwardly away from the periphery of disc S to relieve the pressure on the caps in the delivery chute 8. If there is no jam-up or back-up of closure caps, the deflected closure caps are moved back into the periphery of the disc 5 by the magnetic attraction of the magnets 6. However, if there is a jam-up or back-up of caps the closure cap will fall back into the hopper.

As the closure caps travel they are separated slightly by the idler non-magnetic star wheel 35 which will prevent the magnetic attraction from travelling through the line of closure caps and thus prevent line retardation in the movement of the caps. In addition, the closure caps are passed through the first selector pin wheel 36 which will reject improperly positioned caps and deposit them into a twister 39 which will invert the caps to their proper position and return them on the disc 5 in their proper position.

As a further safeguard against improperly positioned caps being fed to the scaling mechanism, each closure cap is moved past a safety pin wheel 40 which will wedge improperly positioned caps under the plate 42 and alert the operator of an improper selec.or operation.

It will therefore be seen that the present invention provides an improved selector hopper wherein improperly positioned closure caps are inverted and fed individually to a sealing mechanism in their proper positions. The present invention also provides an improved selector hopper wherein magnetic attraction will not retard the feeding of the caps and which may be easily adjusted to feed closure caps of varying sizes.

As various changes may be made in the form, construction and arrangement of the parts herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention and `without sacrificing any of its advantages, it is to be understood that all matter herein is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, I claim: Y

1. A selector' mechanism comprising a rotating disc, magnets on the periphery of said disc to hold closure caps on the disc, said rotating disc being adapted to present closure caps t0 a selector mechanism, means in the path of the closure cap to deflect each closure cap passing thereby, means for rejecting improperly positioned closure caps, a safety mechanism beyond said rejecting mechanism to stop the flow of closures when improperly positioned closure caps are being delivered, said safety mechanism comprises a pin wheel on a horizontal axis and a plate above said pin wheel under which an improperly positioned closure cap is wedged.

2. A selector mechanism as claimed in claim 1 wherein said dellecting means is a block mounted on the frame of said disc.

3. A selector hopper as claimed in claim 1 wherein a scraper blade is pivotally mounted on the frame to scrape off caps nested on other caps and wherein an arm with openings thereon extends therefrom and wherein a pin is adapted to enter the openings and cooperate with an opening in the frame to lock the arm in place.

4. A selector hopper as claimed in claim l wherein said rejecting mechanism comprises a pin wheel mounted on a horizontal axis in the path of the closures.

5. A selector hopper as claimed in claim 4, wherein said rejection mechanism deposits improperly positioned on the periphery thereof, said rotating disc being adapted to present closure caps to the entrance of a selector mechanism and non-magnetic means for separating said closure caps to prevent the magnetic attraction from closures to a twister which inverts the caps and delivers 5 retarding the feed ofthe caps.

them back to the rotating disc.

6. A selector as claimed in claim 5, wherein the end of said twister overlies the magnets on the disc to deposit caps directly thereon.

7. A selector hopper as claimed in claim 1, wherein guide rails are provided at said selector mechanism and means for adjusting the guide rails of the hopper, said means comprising openings in the rails to receive pins adapted to cooperate with the frame to lock the rails in place.

8. A selector hopper comprising a rotating disc, magnets on the periphery of said disc to hold closure caps References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,270,713 Eelada Ian. 20, 1942 2,468,290 Carter Apr. 26, 1949 2,609,912 Engel Sept. 9, 1952 2,836,947 Day June 3, 1958 2,845,161 Lerch July 29, 1958 2,863,588 Stover Dec. 9, 1958 FOREIGN PATENTS 453,052 Germany Nov. 10, 1927 

